BLESS Every Home: Encourage Them
BY PASTOR JADY GRIFFIN
NOISE CANCELLATION
I feel like my part-time job is shuttling my children around. The pressure of getting from one event to another tempts me to not only ignore the people around me, but to not even care that they’re there. Hyper-focusing on what I am doing and what I need is like putting on a pair of noise-cancelling headphones. How can I bless the people I’m surrounded by while walking around my neighborhood, down a grocery store aisle, or onto the soccer field if I can’t hear them? Our second step of the B.L.E.S.S. model, Listen to Their Story, leads directly to the third: Encourage Them.
ENCOURAGE THEM
My son and I were leaving soccer practice one day, and one of the teammates’ dads walking behind us said, “How was you guys’ first day of school?”
I wanted to just say “good,” put my invisible ear muffs on, run to my truck, grab dinner, get home, help with homework, get showered, make sure the kids actually used soap… You get it.
Instead, I tried to stop hustling and start listening. So I put my ears to heaven to hear what was around me and said to him, “Man, it was good, but how was it for you guys?”
I asked an earnest question, and the floodgates opened. This dad shared that he had lost his wife to cancer just two years before, and his youngest son started middle school. Needless to say, there was a lot he was feeling. As he walked me through all he had to do to get his boys ready for school and the rest of his day, I felt like Jesus was speaking to me, “He needs to hear he did a good job.”
WORDS AS WEAPONS
See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called ‘Today,’ so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. Hebrews 3:13
When we start listening to the stories of those around us, it allows us to hear how we can encourage them. Encouragement always blesses those who receive it. So start viewing your words as weapons.
“The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” Proverbs 18:21
Our words have the power to speak life into things that are dead!
“TALITHA KOUM”
In our previous post, we looked at a story in Mark 5 where Jesus heals a woman from years of bleeding. Let’s read the beginning of that story again:
When Jesus had again crossed over by boat to the other side of the lake, a large crowd gathered around him while he was by the lake. Then one of the synagogue leaders, named Jairus, came, and when he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet.
He pleaded earnestly with him, “My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.” So Jesus went with him.
What we previously read was that on his way to Jairus’ house, Jesus stopped for the bleeding woman who had in faith touched his cloak to be healed. Although He had a seemingly urgent task at hand, He turned around in the crowd, looked for the woman, and spoke to her face to face. Then he continued on his way to the home of the sick little girl:
While Jesus was still speaking, some people came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue leader. “Your daughter is dead,” they said. “Why bother the teacher anymore?”
Overhearing what they said, Jesus told him, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.”
He did not let anyone follow him except Peter, James and John the brother of James.
When they came to the home of the synagogue leader, Jesus saw a commotion, with people crying and wailing loudly. He went in and said to them, “Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep.”
But they laughed at him.
After he put them all out, he took the child’s father and mother and the disciples who were with him, and went in where the child was.
He took her by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum!” (which means “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”). Immediately the girl stood up and began to walk around (she was twelve years old). At this they were completely astonished.
Every day we walk around with people who might be in the middle of the scariest, darkest, most painful things we can imagine. Jesus shows us that our purpose is to hear them and to speak life into the death that is around them!
As we do that, what was dead will come alive, and God will use what is happening in a few people to open the hearts of many.
TAKE A STEP
Maybe you’re an encourager by nature. Maybe you lean more on the “glass half empty” side and have to put in a little more thought and effort.
No matter what your personality is like, if you have the Holy Spirit inside of you, He has given you a Living Hope that is the greatest encouragement of all!
Take a moment to pray and ask God to help you encourage someone this week. You may already have connected with a neighbor by listening to their story. What can you do to encourage them today?
The BLESS EVERY HOME App
B.L.E.S.S. is a practical path to sharing the gospel of Jesus with our neighbors. Click below to download the BLESS EVERY HOME app. This tool allows you to adopt homes in your neighborhood to pray for and sends you daily reminders to help you stay focused on missional living.
